# "THUNDERBOLT" WWII AIR COMBAT DOCUMENTARY ITALIAN CAMPAIGN 12th AIR FORCE COLOR VERSION 21134

Directed by William Wyler and John Sturges in 1944, "Thunderbolt" shows the air battles that raged over Italy during World War II. It focuses on the life and death struggle of a P-47 Thunderbolt fighter-bomber squadron in the 12th Air Force. In addition to showing how the pilots' activities seriously crippled the German military's fighting ability, hastening the sweep of Allied forces into Rome, the film also shows the suffering of non-combatants on the ground. The narrators are Lloyd Bridges and Eugene Kern, music by Gail Kubik, script by Lester Koenig. The specific aerial operations shown are part of Operation Strangle, when flyers of the Twelfth Air Force (based in the island of Corsica) made a series of attacks on Axis supply lines. The attacks were made against the Gustav Line and forces arrayed against the Anzio beachhead; the specific attack shown in the film is said to resemble a mission flown on May 1, 1944, against a railroad tunnel at Rignano sull'Arno. Pilot Lt. Col. Gilbert O. Wymond Jr., who appears in the film, was awarded the Silver Star for his gallant work during that mission. His plane the "Hun Hunter XIV" is prominently featured. Much of the footage shown was shot by the 12th Combat Camera Unit, with automatic 16mm gun cameras installed aboard P-47s. Although completed in 1945, the film was not released until 1947 and then re-released during the Korean War as a war relief fundraiser. We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide…

- Kind: Documentary
- Genres: War, Documentary, Industrial and advertising
- Archive: [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/21134thunderboltvwr)
- Licence or status: [CC BY-NC-ND 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) (as the archive states it)
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

Not offered: its uploader states a Creative Commons licence, but that it is the rights holder's is not shown: its record does not date the work from 2002, when the licences were first published, or the work is another's (an older work under a later date, or a video set to another's song), and nothing else the site holds shows where it is free. Unclear is not offered.